Conservation has reduced power consumption in America much more than many realize. Have you checked out America's power usage lately?<br><br>Electricty consumption hasn't grown much.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

Wow, Ron... I have to hand it to you- you ARE a great source of information. I am shocked by the data. I thought it was skyrocketing.. but at the same time I have to look at all the low wattage bulbs we have around our house... we have done lots to conserve... too bad my electric bill doesn't reflect it !! <br><br>Thanks, buddy.<br>Regards,<br><br>David (OFI)<br><br>PS Thought of you last week while visiting Eureka Springs, AR. Took a short train ride there and the ride was neat, but the best part was the Conductor , Travis... full of trivia and stories... he was great. The railway car was an old 1924 Pullman... cool place.

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>(3) The very first underwater turbines are just now being built off the coast of Ireland. The technology isn't quite off-the-shelf nor commercial yet. Also, the sea shelfs around Hawaii are deep with steep drop offs, the seas off Ireland are shallow and relatively flat. <p><hr></blockquote><p> Plus the fact that Hawaii has virtually no tides. You need a land mass for the tide to run into like the Bay of Fundy or around Ireland to get some decent sized tides. <br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

Some environmentalists, right?<br><br>I'm arguing here against the moronic simplistic argument that Bush is making. There are significant market forces behind the prices we pay to the electric company and at the pump that need fixing. The Bush Administration and the Republican majorities in congress made these problems worse during their tenure and I hope that shifting blame over to a few environmentalists who carry so much less political power than a single lobbyist only turns voters off to these people even more.<br><br>-- Cee Bee Double-U

Someone told me that the issue of ANWAR is quiet now because the oil companies are slant drilling from the current Alaskan field into it? <br><br>Is that possible? are they that close ??<br><br>David (OFI)

the problem is NOW - today<br><br>And all of the "solutions" proposed by GW and Co. would take years to accomplish, would benefit the few, and would only be short term. Makes me wonder just what was agreed to in that closed door meeting with the Dick. <br><br>

That close door meeting with Dick was SEVEN years ago.<br>If the Anwar was tapped 7 years ago, the first drop of oil would be flowing today.<br><br>But fuel prices dropped 7 years ago, and no one listened.<br><br><br><br><br><br>

But the so called Bush "energy policy" was set by those meetings. Even if we had gone into ANWAR, the benefits would still be minimal and short term. Petroleum is not an infinite resource. We will run out of the stuff eventually. Do we wait and then panic, or do we wean ourselves off of it well before the supplies are gone?<br><br>

You build other power plants using different fuels when the technology has matured and prices have equalized.<br><br>Wind turbine technology has matured, although the price to produce from wind farms hasn't quite equalized yet with fossil fuels. But, if natural gas and oil prices keep rising, that break-even point rapidly approaches. You build the windfarms where they are the most efficent, not where there isn't enough winds less than half the year.<br><br>There's other technologies on the horizon. But before commerical usage, the technology has to mature. A few test units, upsizing, and redesigining; eventually you get something that's profitable to build and operate. Like underwater tubines.<br><br>Meanwhile, you continue to use what is commercially available and profitable today. It's easy to state a goal to reduce emissions 80%, but you don't madate it with a law when the commercially available technology reduces emissions only 75%. <br><br>Corporations aren't into being the state-of-the-art. Corporations look at value for their bucks, And that usually means building and operating what's commercially available. <br><br>The Pentagon and NASA are into building and operating the latest state-of-the-art equipment. They, and therefore we, pay a high premium for it.<br><br>Do you go out and buy the top most Mac Pro to get the latest and greatest state-of-the-art computer? Or do you, like most of us, buy the latest and greatest iMac, or lesser computer?<br>

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